I began the process by applying online. Two days afterwards I was queried via electronic mail for an onsite interview. After one client-side reschedule, the said meeting commenced. The young female manager who conducted the interview was very cordial and polite - genuinely interested and engaged in the conversation which took a little over an hour. After some back and forth in emails (mainly reciprocating gratitude about the opportunity), a week later I was asked to attend a second set of interviews - both a 1-on-1 with the department 'head' as well as a panel consisting of the 'team'. This also was positive as the senior manager was very animate and excited about their suite of custom-programmed tools. The team seemed mostly reserved and two or three questions in total. To my surprise, lunch was offered at a nearby eatery - something that is rarely done in this day and age. After arriving back at HPS, the HR contact spoke about benefits, desired my input about how I felt about the position and when I would be available to start (allegedly the end of May 2014). This second stage of interviews took approximately two-and-a-half hours in total. Again, I responded in email form a sincere 'thank you' regarding the state of affairs at that point in time.
However, upon arriving home about an hour after the culmination of this most recent interview, I was informed that the HR contact had tried to reach out twice in the past half hour. I responded immediately and during the next ten minutes, I was asked what I would term 'non-standard' questions such as, "If you were offered the position could you supply references from your current employment" (normally an applicant is asked to submit references preceding the process) and "If you were accepting work without compensation, how were you staying afloat?" (personal question [?]). [Of note, the aforementioned questions have been reworded for professionalism.] After these questions were answered I asked if I should respond to these in-person, in front of anyone who had these items of interest to ponder - to which I was told a simple 'no' and that "the team had some concerns". After the communication ended, I could not help but feel a little put off since none of this had transpired in the slightest during either of the interviews.
After another correspondence with praise, I awaited the next response regarding either position. Verbatim, the next email read:
"I just wanted to check in with you to let you know we are still in the process of interviewing other candidates for the Implementation Analyst position. It will probably be another week or so before we make our final decision. ..."
This all but assured that I would not be hired as the mere mention of other candidates is usually not brought into play until the actual rejection process. After the stated week with some extra days' allowance, I broached the subject again to which the given response was:
"Thank you for reaching out to me and as a matter of fact, I was going to get back with you today. After your final interview, we had two additional candidates with more recent, relevant experience and have decided to extend offers to them. ..."
Normally, this wouldn't be of concern and the whole affair would be dropped - but my curiosity was now piqued. During my visits, I noticed that the HPS 'sign-in'/visitor log, which I was required to use, contained very sparse dates. That is, the company did not entertain many visitors. I'd estimate two or three a month. My rejection notice stated they offered employment to two individuals. Odd. During the next two weeks, I noticed the same employment opportunities on their website. Thinking the company needed time to remove them or that there might have been new openings in those areas, I reached out to the HR contact asking as such. The response was, "We are in the process of filling those at this time." Again, odd. After another week, I reached out to an employee to ascertain more detail about the situation (thank you, "June 10th reviewer"!). At first the conversation was terse but after some discussion, the lines of communication opened. This contact was definitive - the statement was "No one was hired for those positions. We all know whenever anyone is taken on. I'm sorry to have to tell you this". Finally, as of today, the positions are still posted.
I have to state that I have never had this sort of response from a potential employer. Usually it's boilerplate and/or nebulous. However, here, most of the process started out well and though I believe the company is innately good as well as these decisions were being confined to one or two people, I sincerely hope that any other jobseeker applying at HPS receives the truth regarding his or her candidacy.
Because of what transpired post-interview, I would rate the whole experience as a negative but the lunch date and exuberance of the managers mitigated some of it.